What to do with a boy soldier?
by LovethatLuna
Summary: This story is set during Hermione's last year at Hogwarts which is post 7th book hence post-Hogwarts. The other settings will mostly just be flash backs. The trauma the OC characters in particular have experienced might make this seem pretty messed up but i hope you enjoy it. There might be occasional humour. Might.


Hermione looked around platform nine and three quarters. She had not expected to find herself here again or at least not expected to be here with a trunk and cage and heading off to school again. It felt very strange, not least because for the first time in her life her parents were not here to see her off. She had not seen them for over a year, ever since she sent them off to Australia, she had flown over at the beginning of summer expecting to find them rather quickly, unmodify their memories and bring them home to meet her boyfriend. But as the days passed by there appeared no sign of Monica or Wendell Wilkins. Eventually an extremely worried Ron had shown up and though he was very supportive she had been forced to admit defeat. She fought back tears as she mourned her parents and the thought of Ron wasn't really helping because although he and Harry were here when she boarded the train it would be without them. Shacklebolt had offered both of them places in Auror training despite there lack of NEWTs. He had done so to all who fought in the war Seamus Finnegan had taken up the offer too.

Then Hermione noticed something else that she was sure was different. Nine older looking boys she was sure she had not seen before at Hogwarts standing near the back of the train alone. Truth be told they didn't look like boys at all. All of them looked as though they could have been at least 17, probably mid 20s, but the way they were standing and the collection of battered trunks with them seemed to suggest that they were all to be boarding the train. But despite the recent battle and the infamously high faculty turnover (at least in one subject) Hogwarts didn't have that many staff vacancies and she doubted even Hagrid looked quite like that at the age of 11. Who were they, why were they suddenly here?

She lent over to Ginny who was looking down the other end of the platform. "Hey Gin, have you seen any of those guys over there before?" she asked. Ginny turned around.

"Who?"

"That group of blokes standing by the train over there."

"No I haven't. Wonder what they're doing here."

At this point Harry strode stiffly over to them. "Looks like you'll have a fair bit of company, Neville and Luna are going to be there too this year." Then he noticed their gazes and glanced over his shoulder. "Aha so those'll be our foreign friends then." he said more to himself than anyone else.

"Whats that," said Ginny, "You know who they are?"

Harry glanced around him, leaned in and murmured, "I can't say anything its rather a sensitive subject according to Kingsley and he hasn't really told me much any way but apparently they speak some english so you could always ask them why they're here. Be careful though they look pretty rough and I know they're being investigated for something."

"Why are they going to school if the ministry is investigating them, shouldn't they be on remand or something?" Hermione whispered, aghast.

Harry lowered his voice to barely a whisper, "Well apparently they were assessed over the summer and officials reckon they are safe to be in public so this is a sort of probation."

"You said they're foreign, where are they from?" Ginny whispered back.

"I don't know I think its somewhere in Europe, maybe Germany if that Pelisse is anything to go by." Harry had recognised the close fitting garment from an old leaden toy soldier he had suddenly remembered playing with whist he lived in the cupboard under the Dursley's stairs. It had been one of his favourite cavalry pieces.

Hermione looked back at them, she hadn't noticed what they were wearing before — their scared and weather beaten faces rather drew one's gaze — but now she looked more carefully at them. They all seamed to be of around six foot in height or well over and most seemed rather thickset too. One of them she now noticed was wearing a tight rather battered and moth eaten black jacket with silver lace and buttons that did indeed appear rather like a Prussian hussars' pelisse. He looked rather haughty with heavily bagged eyes and a glum expression, he was of average height in their little group and though clearly muscled he looked in proportion, unlike the brick shit house next to him. This man was at least a foot taller than hermione she might have guessed about 6'6" but his forearms looked to be thicker than her thigh. He looked frightening. But then hermione looked into his face, beneath his mop of blonde hair, and its expression of mainly fear and anxiety did somewhat soften the first impression. Six of the boys had started to load their trunks into a compartment but these two along with a third boy were still inactive. The first two were standing smartly but this third boy who seemed to be the shortest was leaning against the train casually. He was tapping his foot and the ghost of a smile could be seen on the turned up corners of his lips. He for one looked rather at ease. Taking shear size out of the equation his appearance was probably the most striking, he wore a dark brown leather jacker with '1%' emblazoned on his right sleeve, his left had a skull and cross bones and the left breast of his open jacket featured a roundel the centre of which she suspected would settle over his heart when the jacket was fastened. underneath appeared to be a very creased, faded tea shirt with some kind of black pattern on it.

He saw she was looking at her and winked. She blushed. She hadn't realised how long she had been staring, it was fast approaching 11 O'clock. The boy started to walk towards her, but then the one in the pelisse said something to him in a tone that reminded her of Captain Mainwaring in the TV show her mother had always tried to get her to watch: it was a bark like order. The boy in leather turned instead to a small trunk, picked it up and began to embark upon the train.

After witnessing this Hermione turned to say a teary goodbye to Ron, the new boys may have been distracting but she had lost that battle after all. A wet sniff next to her cheered her a bit: if Ginny was crying then she really wasn't being silly. But then she heard Ginny say "Honestly Harry, I'll be back before you know it." Hermione didn't need to look round to know she was smiling as she said it though.

"I know. But after being away from you for so long last year not knowing if we'd ever see each other again, if we'd even survive, and then spending every day after the battle with you, it's very hard to say … to say…" he took a deep steadying breath, "… goodbye."

Ginny rolled her eyes "You'd bloody better not do that every time I'm going to work next year, Potter." But Harry could tell she was touched.

"Love you."

"Love you too." They kissed, then looked over to see Ron's extremely red ears and wide eyes which were gazing at Hermione's closed lids; their lips welded together.

"Bye Ron, see you at Christmas." Hermione said pulling out of the kiss.

"Urrgh my um nee um eerr! Luu I ve you" Ron spluttered looking a little dazed.

"Love you too." she said, smirking, before following Ginny onto the train.

Harry and Ron waved the train out of the station and when it was gone Harry turned to Ron whilst dabbing his eyes with a handkerchief. "Smooth." he choked out in as sarcastic a voice as he could manage.

Ron cleared his throat, "Ditto."

They turned to leave.

A/N I don't really intend to make Harry and Ron come across as week or shy or anything I just have a bad sense of humour and basically built they're actions just so I could have that little "ditto" joke at the end. I know it's far from the comedic genius Jim Jefferies but I'm not fucking apologising :P I'll ruin any scene for a cheep joke its why I don't get invited to funerals anymore.


End file.
